High-Beams
Interviews, features, book reviews, and more!
News
The Headlight Review is thrilled to announce that the winner for the 2025 Poetry Chapbook Prize is: Feminine Morbidity by Maya Williams.
Features
The work of literary translators has often gone unrecognized—unless it is a bad translation. According to an article in a University of California Press journal, Global Perspectives, which cited a study of New York Times book reviews between 2008-2021, the portion of translated works as a percent of the US publishing market may have crept up to five percent. [1] This is a pitifully small percentage.
When I wrestle with a first draft of shorter writing—an essay in this case—I take it for a long run. No music, no podcasts, just two hours of nature, water in juice-box-sized bottles, electrolyte gels, and my outline entirely in my head. I have no choice but to write, because I’d rather my thoughts excavate the soil around an essay prompt than draft anxious emails (admittedly, I do take these out for runs, too).
Many think that for an author, getting their book banned is a badge of honor. That their sales will skyrocket with the free publicity. But this is only true for “celebrity” authors, or authors who are already a household name. What about the little guys? Those indie authors or first-time authors who have yet to form a large readership. How does book banning affect them?
The speed at which artificial intelligence is advancing is nothing short of impressive, but not everyone is eager to welcome its capabilities into their lives.
Interviews
Jesse Graves’s first collection of poetry Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine was awarded the 2011 Weatherford Award in Poetry from Berea College, the Book of the Year in Poetry Award from the Appalachian Writers’ Association, and the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing. More recently, Tennessee Landscape was celebrated with a tenth Anniversary edition, one that included new poems and an introduction from acclaimed poet Matthew Wimberley.
In this conversation, Mona Susan Power talks about her writing career, the power of fiction, and her latest novel A Council of Dolls with Kennesaw State University Professor Miriam Brown Spiers.
Dr. Andrew Plattner sat with author and The Headlight Review 2021 chapbook prize winner, Lisa Alletson, to discuss her new collection, Good Mother Lizard.
Book Reviews
On the whole, evocative and daring, an uneasy dance between the sand and the sea, Strange Beach is an ever-transforming shore, a space of encounter between bodies and meaning, between history and the new.
Here you'll find books received for review from a variety of presses.